Zodiac: Signs of the Apocalypse

I give credit to the director for trying but don't expect much. The storyline is like any other disaster movie, only difference is how the disasters come about. The special effects are terrible and you can see clearly they are computerized and transfered - hardly believable. Some of the characters got under your skin, and Christopher LLoyd - maybe it 's his age but a disappointment from his days in Back To The Future. The actors did do a nice job carrying the movie but the special effects just didn't seem to help it - in fact it made you cringe at the way some of the effects appeared. A made for TV film for a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Not a bad film if you just want to relax and zone out. It's simplistic and predictable, but fine to watch. Effects are low budget, so you have to look past them. Overall, accept it for what it is. The only really negative thing I have to say about it is how much of a whiny wimp they made the son. 20 years old and no gumption; just ongoing whining.

The main protagonist carries the film, but he's supposed to when you know that the govt baddies haven't got a full brain cell between them.

Watched this movie while on my exercise bike and I am not sure what was more painful - my burning thighs or my burning eyes. Signs of why it should be called DISASTER! - Signs of the coming poo storm

1. The whole movie looks like it was shot in rural Canada - you want me to believe you are in Peru try not have Canadian Pine trees in the scene behind you.

2. The graphics were rendered by Community College students.

3.The actors and actresses all play typical one dimensional characters. Teenage soon - aggressive hates his Dad, Dad loves his son but can't communicate to him.

4. Roping in Christopher Lioyd to play none other than a scientist - and a drunk one at that! I reckon he was really drunk for the roll once he realized what a crap movie he was on. Oh the things we do to pay the bills dear Christoper.

5. Plot holes filled with poo

6. The so called Dept of Defense unit act as though they are managing an order at McDonalds.

7. Car out runs a tsunami!!!!!

8 The Dept of Defense leader goes in ALONE!? in the final showdown and tells the heli piolt to f off like he is some badass then he proceeds to fight like a school kid. While the main lead scientist who is suppose to be a big nerd seems to fight like he was a pro wrestler when the time comes for it.

9. Most "events" involve using giant fans to blow lots of dirt around - waiting for when poo would hit the fan. Tornado can suck up a woman but cant lift a truck or anything around them..

10. Syfy channel funding.

I can see the ambition but its better to pool some more money to make a better movie (please spend more money on FX) than produce little poo storms :-)

There is a scene where they threw in a saying from Back to the Future "Great Scott" Dr Emmitt Brown says this on the classic "Back to the Future"I think the actors all knew this was one big joke of a movie and where to busy trying to impress Christopher Lloyd than worry about the poo storm of a movie they were on.

Considering that he is the most well-known and most experienced actor in the cast by some distance you'd think he would be. Lloyd really gives his all and the eccentric kind of character is one that would have suited him perfectly. Unfortunately Lloyd's screen time is far too limited to save the movie and while he is fun in places- more than his trashy material deserved- he badly over-compensates in others, which really sticks out like a sore thumb. The best performance In Zodiac: Signs of the Apocalypse actually comes from Joel Gretsch, he is a commanding lead and certainly doesn't look at any time look like he's confused or in pain. And Ben Cotton is pretty endearing and makes a real effort to make Marty likable; in fact Marty is like the bright spot when it comes to the characters. Unlike the rest of the cast they actually try to act.

That's very much it for things that redeemed Zodiac: Signs of the Apocalypse a little. Gretsch and Cotton are good and Lloyd tries but the movie on the whole is very badly acted- Emily Holmes attempts at being frightened or emotional came over as forced, Andrea Brooks is so annoying to the extent you want to reach into the TV and slap her and Aaron Douglas doesn't even try to act as the very stereotypical and painfully forgettable villain. Everybody else looked stiff and bored. The cardboard cut-outs passing for characters are as thin as paper, with only Marty showing glimpses of colour, and the actors are further disadvantaged by a clunky script, with a number of lines so cheesy that it makes the cheesiest cheeseburger seem tasteless, that gives off the sense of parody without the humour(got a laugh out of Sophie's line about her homework but that was not in a good way). As well as a story that is filled to the brim with so many clichés(with nothing fresh done with them, characters and situations) that the intense predictability severely dilutes the suspense and fun, also the further the movie wears on the sillier and more tedious it gets.

Production values are not much better at all, in fact one of the worst things here was the special effects which were half-baked at best and laughably amateurish at worst, the disaster scenes are ruined by how cheap they look and how much unintentional humour they cause. It was abundantly clear that more effort went into the making of the promising DVD cover than to the special effects, the DVD cover at least showed some professionalism whereas the effects were borderline hack-job. The colourless and one-dimensional camera work and lacking-in-crispness editing don't fare quite as badly but they don't improve things either, while the whole movie whether in the un-thrilling disaster scenes or the heavy-handed drama suffered from some rather characterless under-directing. The sound effects have a booming sensation but not in a way that thrills, in fact some of it's headache-inducing, while the score is over-bearingly melodramatic and monotonous. Overall, Zodiac: Signs of the Apocalypse is nowhere near the worst SyFy has done, but aside from two performances and the efforts from Lloyd it just doesn't work. 3/10 Bethany Cox

I've been a professor, chair, director & partner. Yet I had a phase of reading & enjoying Mills & Boon books and I enjoyed doing so. Watching Apocalypse Tomorrow (Sky Sci-fi) just now, it's fair to say there's a whole genre of TV movie that is as beyond criticism as Mills & Boon is. This film and others like it are the scifi equivalent of Mills & Boon. Formulaic, cheap, predictable, knocked out as a script over a latte at Starbucks. Yet why not? There's room for low art like this.

Criticising these films is as pointless as criticising Mills and Boon as literature. Pretty girls and guys, heroes and villains, mcguffins aplenty and cameos for one vaguely recognisable scifi genre face. Added to the often preposterous plot (one man links the zodiac to world ending events and only he sees it) these films are just the TV equivalent of.fast food. Enjoy the burger and move on.